After getting bored of having a Gintama image at the top of my monthly roundup posts, I thought what I’d do was have some sort of humorous picture being some sort of comment on anime fandom in the past month. You know, something simple like having Kanata standing at the top of the fortress but instead of holding a trumpet she’s playing a bass-guitar. However, I have absolutely no drawing skills and severly limited photoshopping skills so instead you get treated to a Hanamru picture instead.
A Grade: One of the tops of the year. Get ready for some fanboying here
A+ Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann: Lagann-hen
I’m still slightly in shock from watching that movie. Gurren-hen was a bit of a disappointment. The parts it left out detracted from the story and the parts in stuck in added very little. Lagann-hen was the absolute total opposite. This was better than the anime itself. This was just phenomenal. I’m having trouble deciding if this beats Akira as my new all-time favourite anime movie. To be honest, it probably does.
A– Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood
The grand plot is finally starting to take shape but most importantly what’s happened to FMA:B the past few weeks is it has finally caught the same bug that the first season had: Perfect Pacing. How long is left in this show anyway? It’s setting itself up nicely for a 52 episode finish, or maybe they’ll finish it up with a movie. Either way, FMA continues to be the most anticipated anime for me to watch each week.
B Grade: Hugely entertaining stuff. Not amazing but definitely worth watching
B+ Durarara
OK, I’m being really harsh giving Durarara this grade but it did start off rather slow. The first episode was a bit of a confusing clusterfuck and while a lot of people were won over by episode 2, I still wasn’t quite convinced. Episode 3 and 4 have been fantastic though and if it keeps up that form then FMA:B might finally have a companion sitting in the A grade section each week. Ah, isn’t it great when an anime comes along that seems to be aimed right at you personally~
B Cross Game
Ever since Akane joined the show, Cross Game has really been excellent. This past month has been mainly about building up the relationships between the characters in the classic ‘calm before the storm’ of this upcoming Koshien. Interestingly, I have my doubts that Seishu will win the thing. While they obviously will win every round until the final, when they meet that team they lost against last time I’m not sure if they’ll win this time around either. Which is a good thing. Suspense FTW!
B- Sora no Woto
Quietly plodding along, carefully providing us hints as to what the plot is and what’s happened in the past, I have to say that I’m relieved the Anime no Chikara timeslot has started off well. It’s not amazing or anything, but judging my its popularity in Japan this new timeslot won’t be leaving anytime soon. Keep the name Anime no Chikara in your mind. They’re going to produce even better anime in the future.
C Grade: It’s good enough to keep watching but it’s not that memorable
C+ Nodame Cantabile: Final
At least the third episode was a bit of an improvement, but we are still staring at an even bigger step down than that from the first season to Paris. Paris kept the charm and the focus on Nodame and Chiaki, just it felt a bit rushed. This season so far has not only gone almost nowhere but my main problem is the focus is no longer solely on Nodame and Chiaki. Sorry, but I just don’t care for any of the other characters in the slightest. I can’t even remember their names.
C+ Hanamaru Kindergarden
I thought I would get bored of Hanamaru pretty quickly. In fact, I can still see myself eventually getting bored by this constant level of cuteness and not much else. When an anime has cuteness as its main attractions, I usually end up dropping it about halfway through. However these 4 episodes I’ve thoroughly enjoyed and I never saw any sign of dropping form. Mind you, I also didn’t see any sign of plot or character development either…
C+ Book of Bantorra
Last month wasn’t exactly great for Book of Bantorra and I really started to think that this was heading down that slow death that Daughter of 20 Faces and Guin Saga fell into. Thankfully, we had our favourite Green-haired Suzaku re-appear. Yep, the return of Volken has really spiced up the atmosphere of this anime again. Of course he’s probably going to die in the next episode or something. That always bloody happens in Bantorra.
C Cobra
Generally I’m left rolling my eyes at oldfags who want their corny nonsense anime. I want beautifully constructed plots and excellent characterisation, not super-people surviving anything and everything and women wearing enough to look at home at a lap-dancing club. Maybe it was the corniness of Umineko or something, but I’ve found myself much more attracted to these shows now. Cobra is stupidly corny and I love it because of that.
C- Cowagarke no Orgol
This is a one-shot OVA that I’m pretty sure only came out this month. Asides from the fact that it is absolutely totally unoriginal, the selling point that most one-shots are meant to have, this wasn’t that bad. Little robot girl gives depressed teenager a reason to be happy, hey I can certainly think of worse ways to spend my time. Totally forgettable obviously, but nice nevertheless.
C- Katanagatari
I’m actually being kind with that C- grade because I want to wait another episode before I heap my scorn upon this show. But seriously, what the fuck was that? If you have that flat, fluid artwork, you should use it do animated great flowing samurai fighting. Not spend 40 minutes on talking heads. The conversation wasn’t even the remotest bit witty. Argh, do you really need to put in every line of dialogue Nision wrote?
D Grade: I’ve lost interest in this anime. If it’s a D then I’ve probably dropped it
D- Ookami Kakushi
You know, I’ve yet to really enjoy any VN adaptations. Ookami Kakushi falls quite easily into all the traps all the others fell into. Nothing felt natural and everything feels forced. It’s like conversations in VN’s exist in a separate universe. Sorry to sound so cynical, but maybe this is because they are made for otaku who have very little outside conversations and want to live in the easy world of VN conversations.
E Grade: Unlike D grades where I drop out of disinterest, E grades are dropped in Disgust.
E Dance in the Vampire Bund
Argh, what the hell is with the directing in this series. It feels like he hasn’t a clue what he’s doing and just tossing in random camera angles and snap-shots of buildings in a half-hearted way. Nothing works, absolutely nothing worked. The more I think about Shaft, the more I wonder whether Bakemonogatari was their one-hit wonder. Heck, look what they’ve done to that one-hit wonder. So much for those online streams.
F Grade: Any F standard anime I would only watch 1 or 2 episodes of so god only know how an anime could last to the end of the month and still get an F but I’m sure it will happen some day
F+ Meguriau Sekai
Another one-shot OVA in which absolutely nothing of interest happens. Actually, nothing happens full stop. There’s no sylish animation, no interesting story-telling, just nothing whatsoever. Not even a regular story either. Girl says something about breaking up with guy and then something else, all done through narrative and occasional shots of landscape. Total utter crap.
::Edit:: Oh crap, I totally forgot about Baka to Test. Well, episode 4 was worryingly lacking compared to the first hilarious 3 episodes but it’s probably still worthy of a B for now, maybe a B-.
The Cart Driver 
“A+ Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann: Lagann-hen
This was better than the anime itself.”
Hardly an achievement.
Why yes, it certainly wasn’t that much of an achievement at all. I’d totally forgotten how absolutely mediocre the tv series of Gurren Lagann was but thanks to your extremely helpful comment I’ve remembered how I found myself thoroughly unimpressed by many of its episodes
Lagann-hen completely makes up for Gurren-hen. Loved it, although I’m not sure if I like it more than the series. Maybe about the same.
Hmm, I haven’t watched TTGL…but it seems as though the movie was good enough to encourage me to watch it.
I’m agreeing with you on most stuff here, though I’m not sure what to think about Sora no Woto…it’s lacking in any reason for me to like it a lot, but for whatever reason, I want to give it my full support.
Volken’s reappearance was a little disappointing. I was hoping he’d come back as a full-on villain, especially now that we know that neither the church nor the library are particularly good groups. They’re in league half the time and they’re more concerned with maintaining the status quo than anything else. Volken should have come back and launched total war against both groups in order to bring about change.
@Shinmaru
Lagann-hen was just…ah screw it. I don’t want to spam my own comments so I’ll have to write up a post on it or something
@mefloraine
Nah I think it’s probably better to start with the tv series. The first movie misses out on a lot of the characterisation of many of the side characters. You still get the main story but it jumps rather annoyingly and suddenly you get these bunch of characters you know nothing about.
@Landon
I’m not entirely sure what I was expecting Volken to come back as but I quite like his current stance. He only has a bone to pick with Hamyuts and anyone else he could get on his side he would gladly take, including the church. I can’t see him taking over the rest of the series though. That’s just not how this show rolls.
As for the church being all friendly with Bantorra, I can never really work out what it is the church wants anyway. It doesn’t seem like they’re even fighting for any reason other than habit
I meant watch the series. 😛
Lagann-Hen was… was….
I had a GAINAX day on Saturday. I finished Evangelion for the first time(If I hadnt finished the series at 2 AM, I would have screamed at my computer.) Then, I finished Seirei no Moribito /finally/(Which has nothing to do with GAINAX) and after that, I Watched Gurren-hen and Lagann-hen back to back, and after that, Hanamaru Kindergarten. GAINAX Day, fffffffffffff- Yes ♥
… I fear for those Kindergarteners..
OH!! And by the way, Vampire Bund 4, was /great/
Actually felt like they put in some effort!
Watch ef – memories.
Most of these are pretty close to what I think, except on average a tad harsher.
Are the TTGL movies worth watching if you’ve seen the original anime? Do they add anything integral or is it just a shortened retelling?
–Argh, what the hell is with the directing in this series. It feels like he hasn’t a clue what he’s doing and just tossing in random camera angles and snap-shots of buildings in a half-hearted way–
You do a beautiful job of describing my favorite thing about Dance in the Vampire Bund, although you forgot the half-assed plot with big words thrown in to make it sound deep.
I’m not sure what makes me laugh harder, that or Hanamaru.
I still need to watch the first TTGL movie…
Judging by the screenshot, I’d say that Meguriau Sekai has an interesting style. The black, scribbled letters on the white background may prove to be athletically pleasing.
I’ve fallen behind on all anime at this point. Although I’ve fallen behind of late, FMA is probably my favorite of this list, especially considering it’s the only thing I’ve seen.
Ah yes, just finished Lagann-hen. Not quite surpassing the equal, but certainly reminded me why I loved Gurren Lagann so much in the first place, instead of just being a pale shadow of the original like Gurren-hen was.
Bund is by no means a good show, but I don’t think it’s bad enough to warrant an E. I think it’s pretty interesting (at least it keeps me awake…).
P.S.: Epic date fail: “1TH FEB 2010” (top of the post)
Aww. I’m sad you don’t like Katanagatari.
Also, Dance in the Vampire Bund was TOO Shaft’d and didn’t turn out well. It would be good if, 1, well you already know since I already mentioned it. and 2, there’s no loli fanservice.
I really thought this shit will turn out to be good since I really liked episode 1.
@luffyluffy
Just interested: What did you think of Evangelion? I loved it but at the same time I never really understood it.
@Sorrow-kun
ef has been on my to-watch list for a while now. Actually most of the big-hitters in the VN adaptation world I’ve yet to watch, such as Higurashi and Fate Stay/Night. Mind you I didn’t like Kara no Kyokai and have mixed feelings about Umineko so that doesn’t bode well for either of them
@RP
Yes, although it depends how recently you’ve watched the series. Give it at least a two year gap before you watch the movies. And yes, now that I’ve watched Lagann-hen, it is definately worth watching those movies.
@Janette
The plot isn’t actually that bad, it’s just badly presented. Like, really really badly presented.
And yes, watch the TTGL movies. NAOW!!!
@Glo
Ah crap, you’ve just reminded me that I forgot to add in Baka to Test. There ya go, there’s another show in there that you have seen.
And yeah, that art style is quite reminiscint of Shaft style, maybe you should watch it.
@kadian1364
I actually did think it was better than the original. Again, I’m gonna have to write a full post on it to express my feelings fully on the subject. If a single movie gets the first A+ I’ve ever given in my monthly roundups then it deserves a post of its own
@fangzhao
Bund brings out the harsh critic in me. I spend my time pointing out the miserable directing and pointless cut scenes. Not an enjoyable experience, I hate turning on my critic side
Tomorrows post will also be title ‘2th Febuary’
@blindability
I’m sad too. I wanted to like it!
@Kairu
Loli fanservice is awfully creepy but that is faaaar from the main problem. Actually it isn’t that Shafted at all, which just adds to the whole ‘half-hearted effort’ feel it gives off
…. Overhyped, in my opinion. The first 24 episodes are praticly the same episodic crap over and over.
SHINJI IS LONELY
ASUKA IS A BITCH
ANGEL ATTACKS
EVA’S DISTROYED
EVERYBODY GOES HOME HAPPY
I honestly dont see it as the “MAJORLY MONUMENTIAL EXPERIMENT BY STUDIO GAINAX TO DECONSTRUCT THE MECHA GENRE AND CREATE A MASTERPIECE TO BE KNOWN IN LATER YEARS BY ALL ANIME KIND”
… Maybe I’m being overly harsh..